Media Report of 23rd December 2014
SEV-GATA disconcerted by Swiss’ disregard for social partnershipSwiss causes breakdown of pay talks with trade unions
With a pay round in which salary increase will be nil Swiss makes pay talks with ground staff break down. Again Swiss makes negative headlines after having caused a lot of unrest among its workforce already by closing-down the technical department and flight operations in Basle.
«Announcing dismissals and pushing through zero rounds at the same time expecting good annual results: this can only be interpreted as a bow to the parent company Lufthansa,» Phillip Hadorn, president SEV-GATA, criticises the behaviour of Swiss.
The airline continues its confrontational course: although the workforce demanded a moderate pay rise and despite good business results, Swiss makes pay negotiations with ground staff break down; salary increase will be nil. The company refuses giving a rise, however, is going to pay a Christmas award of CHF 500 for each employee. «Swiss is persistently provoking its employees; this also shows the difficult implementation of the new collective labour agreement, increasing productivity again and introducing a new wage system with career model at the same time. Social peace and social partnership have been put seriously at risk», Phillip Hadorn further states. Only after the unions had put pressure on the company Swiss could be pushed to comply with its contractually agreed willingness and obligation to lead pay talks at all.
Regarding the other conflicts within the Lufthansa Group we’ll see, which union language Swiss will understand in the weeks to come. «The feedback we got from our union members shows unequivocally that the quality of our social partnership must be improved by all union means,» Hadorn adds.
GATA: SEV Aviation (Groundstaff Technics and Administration)is the aviation department of the the transport staff union SEV